La revue The Maltese Falcon

Powerful & disappointing - Never before read the novel, nor saw the famous black-and-white movie, starring Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade. Other reviewers who did, argue the two productions cannot be compared for reasons of plot and of charisma, which Bogart had and the book character had not. He is actually as nasty a package as the con men and the treacherous woman he tries to outwit. The start with two murders, first Spadeâs partner Archer, hours later, the man Archer was supposed to shadow. It is the bookâs high point. And Spade is a suspect in at least one of killings. From then on the novel splutters on in a long holding pattern with some interesting background on the falcon, otherwise full of angry or pleading dialogue and occasional violence. Found the closing chapters, despite more killings boring, a small ordeal.Think the bookâs enduring success owes very much to the film. Book-Spade touches females constantly, sleeps with his woman client and his partnerâs wife, which was perhaps ok...classique et novateur - Un excellent livre dont beaucoup oublient à quel point il est fondateur, d'un sous-genre littéraire, d'un type de personnage également, lequel a depuis été maintes fois décliné en littérature policière comme au cinéma.